Wounded Dreams and Divided Reality

Zhang Shiwen fell silent for a moment. "Little Owl, listen to me."

Liu Xiaoxiao nodded and listened carefully.

"As a Dream Master, I possess the ability to rewrite reality. In other words, I can turn things that have already happened into things that never happened, essentially returning the entire world to the past and making it into one of my dreams," Zhang Shiwen said. "However, any ability that defies the heavens comes at a price."

"A price?" Liu Xiaoxiao's heart tightened.

Zhang Shiwen nodded. "The price I have to pay is my perception of reality. Every reversal causes part of my mind to be eroded by the dream. The more times I reverse things at once, the greater the price. Each bit of erosion takes an extremely long time to heal. In the end, once my mind is completely eroded by dreams, I'll be trapped in them forever, unable to break free, just like... Endymion from Greek mythology."

"I remember that back then, you seemed to have reversed things more than a dozen times in a row..." Liu Xiaoxiao hesitated, but still asked.

"After that time, I should have had no way of returning to reality." Zhang Shiwen leaped onto Liu Xiaoxiao's shoulder. "But that crystal ball of Chaos seemed to possess an ability I didn't know about. It completely erased the erosion I suffered in my previous dreams."

"Chaos... It looks like he really can solve your current predicament," Liu Xiaoxiao said with a sigh.

"But we can't think of relying on him." Zhang Shiwen's expression turned serious. "To Chaos, we're truly nothing more than pieces in a game. He'll never interfere with our actions. At most, he'll give you a few hints like before."

Liu Xiaoxiao was not surprised that Zhang Shiwen knew these things. After all, this